Cinnamon Teal or cinnamon teal in the east?

**UPDATE 30 September 2020**

I added a few new photos:

6a - photo of the Toronto bird flapping which confirms it as an adult male

19-21 - three photos of a different bird at Forest (Lambton Co.)

Introduction

Last Saturday, while conducting our Great Canadian Birdathon (still looking for donations - we've already raised over $10,000 for bird conservation!) we came across a distinctly "cinnamon" teal just outside of Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario. We quickly got the word out and subsequently lots of people had a chance to look for it. Since then I've been trying to figure out whether it was indeed a Cinnamon Teal or maybe just a cinnamon teal. This post is an attempt to assemble all the information I have along with photos from a variety of people (thanks to them all for sharing!).

I'll post a bit of back-story, then photos of some different birds that have been seen in Ontario this fall, followed by some discussion. Please leave comments here or if you're on Facebook on this thread at Advanced Bird ID.

Cinnamon Teal status in Ontario

Cinnamon Teal is a very rare bird in Ontario. Prior to 2020 there were 19 records accepted by the OBRC dating back to 1983. Five of those come from northwestern Ontario (Rainy River and Thunder Bay Districts) and the rest are from southern Ontario. The seasonal distribution (based on first observation) is:

Spring (18 April-11 June) plus an outlier of 4 March - 13 records

Fall (17 November-8 December) - 2 records

Summering records (4 records)

1. 28 May-9 July 1983 (pair, nest with eggs)
2. 23 June-21 July (pair, but the female died)
3. 1 July
4. 27 May-23 June

In my opinion, there is a huge gap in records in August-September (no records!) when they are exiting the northern breeding grounds. This is also the time of year when southern Ontario sees by far the biggest concentrations of Blue-winged Teal. Blue-winged Teal is a former common breeder in Ontario but has declined significantly to the point it barely breeds in most parts of the province and I assume at least some of the flush of birds we see here in August and September come from the west. 

This gap in records is evident not just in Ontario, but throughout the east.

So why the gap in records? It must be an issue with identification. Females are much harder to separate from Blue-winged Teal (the only records in Ontario of females are of birds paired with basic-plumage ("breeding plumage") males). In August to September, male Cinnamon Teal will be in alternate plumage ("non-breeding" or "eclipse" plumage) so much harder to identify.

Fall 2020 reports

Toronto - August 31, 2020

The story starts at the end of August when Paul Prior found a similar bird in Toronto. He posted it along with photos as a possible Cinnamon Teal and Ron Pittaway sent photos to Peter Pyle in California. Peter replied that it looked fine for Cinnamon Teal and that the rusty breast is typical of adult females in alternate (eclipse) plumage and rules out  Blue-winged Teal. I can't speak for other birders, but I saw  those photos and thought that it really stuck out and gave me a search image to look for. Here are some of Paul Prior's photos taken August 31, 2020:

1. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

2. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

3. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

4. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

5. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

6. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

6a. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

Outside of Rondeau Provincial Park (Chatham-Kent): September 19, 2020+

With the search image of a "BWTE with rusty tones" in mind, we (Ken Burrell, Mike Burrell, and Jim Burrel) found this bird on September 19, 2020. We couldn't manage good photos on the day we found it, but here are the best from subsequent days. We were also somewhat rushed as we were conducting a big day raising money for bird conservation. In the field, this bird stuck out as having really reddish tones concentrated in the breast, but extending down the flanks and into the undertail. We discussed the bill in the field as being slightly larger than the nearby Blue-winged Teal but not obviously massive. On September 20, 2020 a second bird was noted with the first as also having a reddish breast, but not as extensive reddish elsewhere on the body.

I sent some of these photos (of "both" birds) to Peter Pyle and Alvao Jaramillo for their opinion. Alvaro thought the first could be a Cinnamon Teal but had reservations about it, particularly the bill (I'm paraphrasing) but felt the second bird was more likely a rusty looking Blue-winged Teal.

Peter at first thought the more rusty bird looked fine for an adult male Cinnamon Teal (aged by evenly-shaped back feathers) and the rusty feathers could be left over from basic (breeding) plumage in spring. The second bird he thought also looked OK for an eclipse adult male (sexed based on large bill). After some back and forth with him where I asked about certain features (more on that below) he agreed that some things were inconsistent with a pure Cinnamon Teal. Note that as he pointed out it was hard to be sure which photos were of which bird. 

7. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

8. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

9. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

10. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

11. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

12. "cinnamon" teal (note second bird) at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

13. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 22, 2020. Photo by Garry Sadler

14. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 22, 2020. Photo by Garry Sadler

15. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 23, 2020. Photo by Denise Dykema

16. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 23, 2020. Photo by Denise Dykema

It should be noted that because there are at least two birds there with rusty breasts, I can't be totally sure all photos are of the same individual and I haven't been back to the site to make additional observations.

Forest (Lambton County) 

James Holdsworth, with the search image in mind, then found another teal with "cinnamon" colouring, this past week, this time at Forest Sewage Lagoons in Lambton and suggested that all these "cinnamon" teals were oddly-coloured Blue-winged Teal.

17. "cinnamon" teal at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by James Holdsworth

18. "cinnamon" teal at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by James Holdsworth

19. "cinnamon" teal (different from 17-18) at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by Mark Buchanan

20. "cinnamon" teal (different from 17-18) at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by Mark Buchanan

21. "cinnamon" teal (different from 17-18) at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by Mark Buchanan

Discussion

So we're left with an unexpected flush of "cinnamon" teal associating with Blue-winged Teal right in the time of year when we could predict Cinnamon Teal should show up. But three records of four individuals seems pretty unlikely...

Some photos of clear-cut September US Cinnamon Teal from within their range:

Males

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/26555933

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/265491901

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/265414511

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/265235801

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/263264641

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/262197541

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/262141621 (full "eclipse")

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/179360691 (I think it's a male)

Females

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/265001021 (pair)

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/263291631

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/262583831

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/262064331

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/261703271

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/261419721

Plumage

Those rusty feathers are pretty extreme, especially on the Lambton and Chatham-Kent birds. Could it be staining? If not, it's hard to imagine a Blue-winged Teal showing that much rufous feathering left over from basic (breeding) plumage. And it's too early for them to be molting really - the only advanced in molt September bird I could find online was this one :)

Facial pattern

The facial pattern looks pretty bold to me, especially on the Lambton bird. The Chatham-Kent bird(s) is perhaps slightly more muted and the Toronto bird is best. But I don't think any of them are "perfect" for Cinnamon Teal; all show some pale at the base of the bill and a fairly pronounced eye stripe.

Sex

I haven't seen them, but apparently "flapping" photos exist of the Toronto bird to identify it as a male (as per Paul Prior). For the Chatham-Kent bird, the one in flight sure looks like a young female wing pattern, though I could be mistaken. I'm not sure about the Lambton bird.

Age

Age is tricky to assign with these photos. The only bird that has really good photos to see feather detail are some of the shots of the Chatham-Kent bird(s) but there is the caveat that we could be looking at different individuals in different photos. Peter Pyle aged the bird in photo 10 as an adult, possibly second year bird. The flight shots (15/16) seem to indicate a hatch year bird.

Eye colour

Adult male Cinnamon Teals should show an orange/red eye. It's surprisingly obvious. Some birds apparently can show a brownish eye in the summer but in my relatively quick search of the Macaulay Library I didn't see any obvious males with brownish eyes. Here's a "typical" male in September...I am confident that all of the birds here have brownish eyes. That's no big deal if we're dealing with females or hatch year birds, but I think it is a pretty big red flag if we're talking adult males.

Bill

Alvaro put it really well in his email to me, "I always joke that we have Blue-wing, and then the greater and lesser shoveler". And that bares out pretty well looking at photos, Cinnamon Teal has a pretty honkin' bill. Measurements given show a pretty big overlap and I wonder if the difference might be less on females or young birds, but to me none of these birds jump out as having a huge bill even with direct comparisons with Blue-winged Teal. They may be on the biggish end for Blue-winged Teal but not overly huge. However, scrolling through images on Macaulay Library you can find quite a range of variation in this feature in both species. 

Conclusion

Are Cinnamon Teal really this hard to pick out? Or are we just trying a bit hard here? Could these all be colour-stained Blue-winged Teal? Hybrids? The more I look at photos of Cinnamon Teal I wonder if the overall plumage colour is just a red herring! What does a hatch-year male Cinnamon Teal look like in September?

The whole point of writing this was to solicit opinions from people with experience separating the two...so, please leave your comments below or on the Advanced Bird ID thread.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Alvaro Jaramillo and Peter Pyle for really quick and thoughtful responses to my initial and follow-up questions. Thanks to Paul Prior, Mourad Jabra, Garry Sadler, Denise Dykema, and James Holdsworth for allowing me to post their photos here. Steve Charbonneau helped round up the photos. And thanks to all the interesting discussion on these birds I've already read - look forward to reading more!